Who became kamikaze pilots, and How did they feel towards their suicide mission?

This statement makes sense, considering the relative skills of the pilots of the time. By 1944, air raids were made all over Japan, especially in the cities. Most of the best pilots of the Navy and the Army had been lost in previous battles. Training time was greatly reduced to the minimum, or even less than was necessary in order to train a pilot. By the time the organized suicide attacks had started, the pilots only had the ability to fly, not to fight. Although what happens to the pilot himself in doing the suicide attack is by no means anywhere near beauty, to die in such a way, for the Emperor, and for the country, was (at the time), honorable.

One thing that was decided upon by the General Staff was that the Kamikaze attacks were to be made only if it was in the will of the pilot himself. It was too much of a task to be «commanded."[16]

The first organized suicide attack was made on October 21, 1944 by a squadron called the Shinpu Tokubetsu Kogekitai.[17] Tokubetsu Kogekitai was the name generally used in the Japanese Imperial Navy and Army. The public had known them as the Tokkotai, the abbreviated form. Tokkotai referred to all the organized suicide attacks. Shinpu is what is better known as Kamikaze.[18] The captain of the first attack was to be Captain Yukio Seki.[19]

How was Captain Seki talked into such a task? According to the subcommander of the First Air Fleet, Tamai, who brought the issue up to Captain Seki, the Captain had in a short time replied «I understand. Please let me do it."[20] According to another source, the reply that Captain Seki gave was, «Please let me think about it one night. I will accept the offer tomorrow morning."[21]

The document which seems to have the most credibility is the book, The Divine Wind by Captain Rikihei Inoguchi and Commander Tadashi Nakajima. According to this account a graduate of the Naval Academy, Naoshi Kanno, was originally nominated as the leader of this mission. However, he was away from Mabalacat on a mission to mainland Japan. Therefore, to take Kanno’s place Captain Seki was chosen, and was called to Commander Tamai’s room at midnight. After hearing of the mission, it appears, Seki remained silent for a while, then replied, «You must let me do it."[22] The reason this is the most credible document is because it had been written by Captain Rikihei Inoguchi, who was actually there with Tamai and Seki, and named the first unit, Shinpu. It is doubtful that there was a flaw in his memory since the book was published in 1959, only 14 years after the war.

In any case, Captain Seki agreed to lead the first Kamikaze attack, and, on October 25, 1944 during the battle off Samos, made one of the first attacks, on the American aircraft carrier Saint Lo.[23] Twenty-six fighter planes were prepared, of which half were to escort and the other half to make the suicide mission. That half was divided into the Shikishima, Yamato, Asahi and Yamazakura.[24]

Part Three

The youngest of the Kamikaze pilots of the Imperial Army was 17 years old,[25] and the oldest, 35.[26] Most of them were in their late teens, or early twenties. As the battle in Okinawa [April to June 1945] worsened, the average age of the pilots got younger. Some had only completed the equivalent of an elementary school and middle school combined. Some had been to college. There was a tendency for them not to be first sons. The eldest sons usually took over the family business. Most were therefore the younger sons who did not need to worry about the family business. Most of those who had come from college came in what is called the Gakuto Shutsujin. This was when the college students' exemption from being drafted into the military was lifted, and the graduation of the seniors was shifted from April 1944 to September 1943.[27]